June 23, 2008
changes at Go Fish
Mr. Downing is out with $120K consulting gig and Mr. Freeman is in with $37,500/month salary going up to $50,000/month after financing of $8m or more. Oh and a $12,500/mo retroactive bonus after one year. good gig.
I hope he can pump up the company. It HAS to be worth more than $10M that it is now.
Posted by Martin at 1:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 13, 2007
Save net Radio
I like listening to SOMAfm.com while working at home. A recent ruling by the copyright board significantly raises royalties for internet radio stations and threatens to make them ad blasting noise sinks just like regular radio. Surf over to: Savenetradio.org and help stop this. The House has passed a stay of execution, the Senate needs to move next.
Posted by Martin at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 23, 2007
Watch Mika Salmi at Viacom
What happens when a big media company (Viacom) buys a small internet media company (AtomShockwave)? Usually the small entrepreneural culture is killed, the best people driven off by corporate red tape and the spirit dies. Not so this time. Viacom actually had some balls and hired Mika Salmi to run their ENTIRE MTV DIGITAL with over 1,200 people world wide. And it looks like they are actually letting him make some changes that are vintage Mika. This week he opened up the Viacom web sites in a web 2.0 access type deal: Sharing the Wealth at MTV - New York Times. That deal would have NEVER GOTTEN done without Mika. And it will work. What big media needs to do is buy little media and put the smart little media people in charge. Like Mika. Then watch out!
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Posted by Martin at 9:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 12, 2006
Another dot Com survivor gets a payday
I started Loudeye Technologies just a couple months before Mika Salmi started Atom Films up here in Seattle. In 2001 he combined with Shockwave.com and has since created the leading short form entertainment and game site on the web. Last month they sold to MTV for $200M: Press Room - release 08.09.06. Mika is now in Europe enjoying himself. Well deserved.
Posted by Martin at 9:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 28, 2005
A funny patent plaque business
I get lots of junk mail. Most of it I throw out. Got a postcard from www.patentawards.com that I thought was a good use of direct marketing. They are basically a firm that tolls the patent databases and sends post-cards to the recent patent awardees and tries to sell you a vanity plaque for your wall. I get called like this for reprints of news articles as well. They caught my patent on: Distributed production system for digitally encoding information - US Patent 6873877 and sent me a card. I won't buy the plaque, but the offer was incredibly timely and personal. A good use of direct marketing that stuck out over the clutter. I wish more e-mail marketing was like that.
Posted by Martin at 9:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 30, 2005
Send Big Stuff utility
I have been looking for an easy to use service for sending large files (>5mb). I may have found it: YouSendIt | Email large files quickly, securely, and easily!. It is basically a web site that uploads your file then sends the other person in e-mail a link to it to download. It looks like basically an HTML front-end to simple FTP. I like. Clean, simple, free! Why can't all software be like this?
Posted by Martin at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 31, 2005
Hey, I have got two patents!
When I was founder of Loudeye Technologies, we filed a bunch, but I never really remembered which ones had been issued. Today messing around in the patent database I found out. #6873877, Distributed production system for digitally encoding information, and #6732151, Methods for forwarding voice messages to an email account. Wow, cool.
Posted by Martin at 8:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 29, 2005
Good day to GoFishing...
When the Supreme Court is hearing a case that will determine the future of digital media, I say it is a good day to GoFish. My friend Michael runs this scrappy little start-up and they have a new agreement with IceRocket (thanks Mark) and a new browser tool and firefox plug-in. GoFish has aggregated all the legal digital media stores into one place and also added in related physical media (like CDs, books, tee-shirts). With today's totally fragmented digital media reseller market place, GoFish is a godsend. Can't find the song you want on iTunes, maybe it is on Rhapsody, or Walmart. Don't spend your time shopping around, just GoFish. And get helpful smart links to related physical items as well. Did you know that Herbie Mann covered Nirvana? That is a little known fact I could have done without, but there it is for the Nirvana fan who simply must have EVERYTHING!
Go Fishing!
Posted by Martin at 10:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 24, 2005
two new music sites to play with
Eric sent me:
Last.FM - Your personal music network - Personalised online radio station
and
Audioscrobbler.
basically player plug-ins that share your listening habits with a server and the community helps you find new songs. You share your listening habits seamlessly. I am going to try it.
Posted by Martin at 11:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 18, 2005
My new favorite web radio station
I have gotten tired of the advertisements of Live365 and the constant upselling to their "premium" services. Don't these people know that there are plenty of free alternatives? My new favorite is Energy X radio stream on: EnergyRadio.FM Listen and rock out!
Posted by Martin at 4:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
Everyone is writing books these days
My friend Gerd Leonhard just published a book on the future of music: Future of Music. My partners Rich and John published The Marketing Playbook. gosh, I better get to work!
Posted by Martin at 5:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 5, 2005
wow, finally one ruling for the little guy
DJC.COM: News from AP today a court actually ruled in FAVOR of privacy! Can you believe it? In America? Court ruled that ISPs dont' have to disclose digital music downloaders to those who would sue them. Finally some sanity!
Posted by Martin at 1:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 28, 2004
Trying Audacity
When my friend Eric says something doesn't suck, I stand up and take notice. Eric doesn't say this about many things. He recently pointed me to Audacity, an open source sound editing software project. I am downloading it now. It uses the LAME library for MP3 encoding and has all the basics, but the best part is IT IS FREE! Keep an eye here for a full review.
Posted by Martin at 11:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 3, 2004
SnoCap is NoCap
Shawn Fanning's Snocap touts vision of P2P heaven | The Register is the latest attempt to extract $$ from the P2P network traffic. I think this one is DOA as well.
Posted by Martin at 12:48 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 29, 2004
WeedShare on E-Bay
My friend Doran Bastin spent the last month setting up an e-bay store for WeedShare. eBay Store - WeedShare: Top Ten, Alternative, and Blues Weedshare is an innovative concept for digital content sales. You buy a copy of a song and if you pass it along to another friend and they buy it, you get a commission. Sort of the Amway of digital music distribution. It leverages one of the most powerful forces in music purchasing, friends recommendations. Built on MS media digital rights management.
WeedShare is run by the ever capable John Beezer. I like the idea and hope they get some traction. Looks like Wired News finds them interesting. I still don't believe that a large business will be built on the back of the music monopoly. Especially in a digital world where free is a very real and easy alternative.
Posted by Martin at 10:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Go Fish launches
Want to search for anything music related that you can buy on-line? SiliconBeat: Fishing for music with GoFish. My friend Michale Donahue is running this innovateive site. I think search and aggregating all the various catalogues online is one of the only possible profitable models in digital goods.
Posted by Martin at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2004
I am over BlueBeat
Well another early adopter technology goes into the recycle bin. Time to reclaim those bits on the harddrive. BlueBeat is out. I LOVE listening to 320K lossless audio streams commercial free. But the hooks that are required to support the X1 decoder (to make sure you don't attach an audio encoder or other copy device) makes me have to disable too many things. The spyware, virus and firewall programs complain about X1 running at such a low level in the stack. When you can get the same genre streams over at Shoutcast at 128 mp3 without any security issues, the hassle for the higher bitrate is not worth it.
Posted by Martin at 7:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2004
Check out GoFish integrated with Search
My friends at GoFish have been aggregating all the paid-for digital media outlets on the web. Now they have integrated their search results with a traditional search engine results (google). Very cool how you can find songs, ringtones and videos in addition to fan pages.
Posted by Martin at 3:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 1, 2004
Installing BlueBeat player
A friend of mine, Gerd Leonard is consulting to a nifty little company down in LA that runs BlueBeat. The core technology of the company is the X1 player that secures music from ANY recording device on the computer. It is a well known flaw in ALL DRM systems that once the music is unlocked and playing over the computer, you can use any number of recorders to intercept the digital signal and make perfect digital copies. There are even recorders that will chop up an MP3 stream into it's component songs for you. So these guys intercept all the channels and disable these products. Just like some of the OS technologies that prevent debuggers to being attached to programs.
Because BlueBeat uses this higher level of protection, they can stream VERY high quality digital streams over the net to you. They stream 320k! No commercials! All you have to do is be willing to not steal it. I can live with that. Just sign up for an account and download the player, then reboot. I am having problems running it on two computers, I bet they lock it to one CPU. But the quality is great!
Posted by Martin at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 22, 2004
Wow that was fast Sony
Wow, on Tuesday I bitched about Sony's stuborn insistence on ATRAC3 as a codec and the next day they announce support for MP3: Sony to support MP3 | CNET News.com
Posted by Martin at 1:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 21, 2004
A study supports my feeling that retailers will not make money in digital music
Today PaidContent.org published some of my thoughts on "who will make money with digital music". I said the labels will take the lion share and the retailer will be left with negative to zero margins. A study today shows this to be the case:
-- Labels Get Majority in Digital Downloads: The Independent reports that the labels take home the lion's share of the cost of a digital download -- making more money per track than they do with CDs in shops. Apple, with its iTunes, retains just 4 cents from each 99-cent (55p) track sale while "mechanical copyright" holders -- generally the record labels, who own copyright in the song's recording -- take 62 cents or more. Music publishers take the rest -- about 8 cents.
With the online sites, the copyright owners have doubled their share of royalties, even though the marginal cost of manufacturing has fallen to almost zero.
The figures also cast doubt on the viability of the dozens of companies storming into the online music market... [Sep.21: Link] | Music |
Posted by Martin at 3:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 27, 2004
Business 2.0 picks up on my theme about Real having no grass
When the Apple/Real bungle started last week, I posted the theorem that Real isn't much of an underdog and doesn't have enough grass to wage a grass roots campaign against the KING OF GRASS, Steve at Apple. Today Business 2.0 :: Online Article :: Marketing Focus :: Is RealNetworks Just Stinky Cheese? makes the same point (albiet 9 days late). Aren't blogs wonderful?
Posted by Martin at 12:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 18, 2004
Real sticks their foot in it against Apple
MacDailyNews - News reports the Mac faithful response to Real's attempt to "rally the people" to open up the Ipod to Real formats. What Rob doesn't understand is that he can't hold a candle to Steve in terms of customer loyalty. The Mac guys are total zealots. There is no way to paint Apple as evil in their mind. Funny that Real with MAJOR player share is trying to act like underdog to Apple's 2% market share. The pot calling the kettle black. Real has never been a place of the people. Rob took all the pages out of the Microsoft monopoly playbook and added some more. Now that they are getting beat by their own playbook (msft) they want to go back into the underdog position and get some cred back. Too late Rob, you already blew it.
Posted by Martin at 1:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 10, 2004
New favorite dub radio station
Jon Buck, founder of dublab wrote me a mail after reading DGC. I clicked over to his web radio station and it is now in my favorites. If you like Dub music, you will love dublab!
Posted by Martin at 1:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 3, 2004
Micropayments projected to be big (maybe)
PaidContent.org: August 02, 2004 Archives makes a very insightful observation about micropayments. While the vendors are arguing about which micropayment approach is more effective (direct-to-bill, merchant aggregation, prepaid accounts or direct transfer), consumers are happily signing up for all you can eat subscription models that obviate the need for micropayments at all for things like music. This is something that we see alot in venture, alternate behavior crushing the need for a technology solution at all. Think about Cable TV. Would it be a large business if you had to make an active choice to buy each channel every time you wanted to watch it? This gets back to one of my core investment thesis: Americans are lazy. No, I don't want to make thousands of little buying decisions, I would rather make one larger one. Ringtones asside, Micropayments are going to struggle with this problem long-term.
Posted by Martin at 6:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 22, 2004
Digital Music player sales double in 2004
Technology News Article | Reuters.com reports that digital music player sales will be 10M units this year. I bought my first three years ago. I still don't have an iPod. I like the kind with an FM radio in them so I can use them in the Gym. Who really needs 20gig for music? I need that for video though. Look for portable digital video players to take off next year. I actually think that digital music players will probably tapper off in two years or so. My new phone (Nokia 6230) has it built in (and FM too).
Posted by Martin at 7:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 6, 2004
Looking for a media database
Gunna try Open Media Database. Look for review in a week or so.
Posted by Martin at 6:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 22, 2004
Loudeye bulks up
The Seattle PI has the news that Loudeye buys similar firm in Europe. Good to see Jeff making smart moves. Loudeye is the only public pure-play in digital audio/video distribution. The labels are finally cutting deals that are economic for the middlemen like LOUD. About time!
Posted by Martin at 9:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 27, 2004
Google blind to audio and video
Search engines try to find their sound | CNET News.com. The press is finally writing about what I have been saying for awhile. Effective search for audio and video is hard. HTML spiders won't get you there. Look for a post about a new start-up coming out of stealth next week. I am sworn to secrecy till then.
Posted by Martin at 7:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 17, 2004
Ringtone aggregators getting squeezed
More evidence today from PaidContent.org of ring tone aggregators getting squeezed by publishers, sometimes down to zero on the revenue split. And all these deals are short term. This is the problem with making money on someone else's content. They control your revenue share. As I have said many times before, the music industry will never allow a meaningful amount of money to be taken off the table by anyone else in the chain. They will always get the largest piece and will squeeze everyone else with competition. Ouch!
Posted by Martin at 9:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 13, 2004
ON 24 gets more money
ON24 gets new funding led by USVP. Wow, still funding streaming media companies. That is a surprise. These guys claim to be profitable. But they raised $40M. Wow.
Posted by Martin at 11:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 10, 2004
Sony's digital music site an "embarrassment"
The Washington Post's correctlyreporting that Sony's new music service is an embarrassement. No innovation. No clear useage rights. Poor user interface. Limited catalogue. OK price, but not much more. www.connect.com
Come on guys, we are still in V 1.0 of these music services. There are new ways to consume music that actually EXPAND the market. But me-to poor iTunes clones are not the way. From the company that brought us the WalkMan, I would have expected more.
Posted by Martin at 8:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 6, 2004
Glaser continues to show his liberal colors
PaidContent.org reports that Rob Glaser, CEO of Real Networks has invested in Al Gore's liberal radio network, Air America Radio.
Long time streaming media watchers will remember the original name of Real Networks as Progressive Networks. Progressive for the "leveling" power of giving streaming media to the people. How it is going to break down the barriers to free speech and break the back of the big media companies. Rob is still dreaming. And obviously pissed that the Republicans have done a better job with his new technologies than the liberals. That is because the liberals are in control of tradidtional media! Funny.
Posted by Martin at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 14, 2004
The new digital media consumer
FT.com has a pretty good overview article which summarizes the salient differences that the new digital media consumer displays from the former media buyer (the record or CD buyer). It is worth the read to get an overview of how the new digerati want to consume media and the movement toward those needs some media companies are making. Slowly but moving.
Posted by Martin at 8:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 5, 2004
A vision for a new music model
My friend Gerd Leonard has published a paper with his vision on the future of the music business. Basically he is advocating a move back to music as a service. There is more dreaming and "should be" than "will be" here, but interesting reading.
Posted by Martin at 2:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 4, 2004
More record industry revisionism
This today in e-mail from Hank Barry (former CEO of Napster).
"Record sales were up in every quarter in which Napster was operating."
Funny how the powerful music lobby has the public and lawmakers believing otherwise eh?
Posted by Martin at 8:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Record industry is Lying about downloads effect on sales
I have thought for some time that the recording industry has been using funny numbers to support their assertion that digital music downloads have caused the drop in CD sales over the last couple of years. Now a The New York Times is reporting a new study out of Harvard confirms this. Using rigorous analysis of actual downloads correlated to CD sales in a specific geography, there is nearly no coorelation. The authors point out that free attracts a large number of people who may not even be CD buyers in the first place. The interesting question is what will the Music Monopoly say when CD sales spike up? They have been down for three years. At the same time as the general economy. Now the economy is coming back. And some great new music is coming out. What if sales pick up? Will they claim that their lawsuits are working? P2P usage is still up and to the right. The facts won't support this. I bet when CD sales spike, P2P will be up as well.
Don't get me wrong, I believe the CD sales model is a dying channel. It is a business model gasping it's last breaths. But it will have a couple dead cat bounces along the way.
Posted by Martin at 7:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 22, 2004
Wow, blast from the past
I am trying a new beta search engine Eurekster. Like most people of course one of the searches I try is my name. One of the top results was a Business Week article from 2000 about how I bought my VP of Sales an $18K Harley. Those were the dayz... Nice picture though.
Posted by Martin at 2:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 24, 2004
Napster sells 5 Million songs - according to them
Napster Sells 5 Million Downloads. I hoep they are right. The PC market is WAY bigger than the apple iTunes market. The absolute numbers of iTunes downloads is miniscule in the scheme of things. Now they have moved the bar by offering concerts for sale. But in the end all those and moer will be available on other retailers. I hope Napster is really doing these kinds of numbers. I woule expect to see a Pepsi like promotion with another retailer like Napster. Can anyone say Coke?
Posted by Martin at 7:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Another old idea made new
The year is 1998. I am the CEO of Encoding.com. People are coming out of the woodwork to try to monitize their audio archives on the internet. I am talking to Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame. He wants to "monitize his live archives." He is in town talking to other bands. Notably Pearl Jam who have a DAT tape of every concert they ever did. The label doesn't want to put out that many live albums. What is a band to do? Fripp ended up starting a .com that failed miserably. Now iTunes is trying to make this idea new: Widespread Panic I guess in time, all ideas have their time.
Posted by Martin at 7:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 18, 2004
Loudeye still on a roll
Loudeye Press Release
Loudeye raised $20 million more. I wonder how private digital media companies hope to compete with Loudeye already public with lots of money in the coffers? Jeff Cavins is doing a great job there!
Posted by Martin at 9:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 17, 2004
Pure play music companies are hozed
Can pure play music download companies make money?No. The itunes of the world sell hardware. Real has software and other subscription services. I have long said that consumers don't want to add billing relationships to their world. They want to consolidate the number of bills they pay and places they buy from. That is why it is always better to be in the infrastructure business. Like Loudeye.
Posted by Martin at 11:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2004
Digital music muzings
I haven't posted about digital music lately, but a friend mailed with a bunch of questions on what I thought today, so here are my current thoughts:
I believe that we will see many more places selling music in download as well as subscription form. In the end you will probably buy from someone who you already have a billing relationship with. That bodes well for Walmart, your phone company, your cable company, and your broadband provider. It does not bode well for music only sellers like Rhapsody, iTunes, etc. Remember, why do we shop in superstores instead of boutiques most of the time? You can get lots of different things in one place. For example, would you like to shop for music, videos, and related merchandise in the same place? Probably. What about playback devices? Can you get all this at a download store? No. Digital music will be used by people like Walmart as a loss leader to sell the more profitable consumer electronics. You already see that. These guys will take all the margin away from music because they make it up on other things. There will be no business for digital music only retailers. This bodes well for Loudeye Technology as an arms supplier to them all.
Also, the first round of these services are built around proprietary codecs and limited selection and limited playback devices. I am not going to sign up for any of these services until I can access any of the music on any platform or device I want at any time. And I want a complete catalogue. Today to get a comprehensive catalogue and playback all the places I want (PC connected, PC not connected, portable music player, car, friend's house, second home, office) would require multiple subscriptions to multiple services. It just ain't gunna happen.
Posted by Martin at 3:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2003
Finally the court stands up for privacy!
I was wondering when the courts would realize that the RIAA was seeking WAY more powers than even the Homeland Security department has in order to persue US citizens. Finally the courts put a little hitch in their step. Court: RIAA lawsuit strategy illegal | CNET News.com This is not terrorism guys.
Posted by Martin at 4:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Good Wharton article on state of digital music business
couldn't have done the wrap-up any better myself. Knowledge@Wharton
Posted by Martin at 3:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wal Mart wades into digital music
Wal Mart to test digital music this is the really big news of this week. The Real story is a footnote. I have contended for a long time that you will buy digital music and other content from retailers you already have a relationship with. No new music retailer will come out of this. Look for Amazon to be in the business soon. Digital media will be a loss leader for these people because everyone will be paying the same royaties to the music labels leaving little room for differentiation. The differentiation will be in retailer soft bundles with music playing devices and other things that have more margin. Wal Mart will be restricted somewhat in that they are only offering WMA format songs and that format is not as widely supported as MP3. But Apple iTunes already has that problem as well and seems to have enough players to make a business. Where you want to be in a war like this is as the arms supplier. That is Loudeye.
Posted by Martin at 3:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
the full microsoft reaction to REAL claims
Microsoft Statement on RealNetworks' Legal Action. I predict this is Rob Glaser's Waterloo. If you have extra time on your hands, read the whole complaint.
Posted by Martin at 2:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The REAL last gasp
When your surrogates don't get what you want done, you have to do it yourself. That must be Rob Glaser's conclusion when he diceded to sue Msft. The Seattle Times has a good summary of the claims and a background timeline. RealNetworks sues Microsoft. It is sad and pretty silly to have the leader in a market try to get anti-trust laws to protect them from competition. I wonder if Rob is ready for the countersuit that alleges he uses a similar monopolistic playbook when he thinks no-one is looking.
Posted by Martin at 2:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 15, 2003
The labels want you to use their system now
Wow, a peer-to-peer system that respects copywrites: New Scientist Where do I sign up? These efforts are going nowhere.
Posted by Martin at 4:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Canada to slap tarriff on MP3 players
I had predicted two years ago that the music industry would try to tax hard-drives and blank media like they do blank cassettes to make up for some of their lost royalties. Well Canada seems to be abliging with a new Tarrif
Posted by Martin at 4:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 20, 2003
New location for Waste
Totally anonymous P2P. WASTE Mirrors If you run a Waste network, lemmie know and we can hook up.
Posted by Martin at 11:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 19, 2003
The Pro version of MP3 radio
Now if you have more like 3 grand to throw around go with this: Windows XP Pro powers digital radio broadcasting device All the features of a professional radio jockey in a box. And you can stream it out to the world or just to your own lan.
Posted by Martin at 4:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Squeezebox
Here is something for the christmas list. Slim Devices : Free Your Music! A home media player for your MP3s that uses 802.11. Very cool. But I can do the same with my TIVO which I already have.
Posted by Martin at 4:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 13, 2003
More music industry bumbling
So here is a classic poor customer service/bad distribution channel story. So a couple weeks ago I went to see Kill Bill. Loved it. As usual, Quentin did a GREAT job on the soundtrack. So next day I go to Tower with money in hand. Out of stock. Barnes and Noble, out of stock. Silver platters, out of stock. Amazon, week wait (maybe longer).
So I fire up Kazaa. All there for free. I call a friend who offers to download it and burn a CD for free. Being the law abiding citizen that I am, of course I don't do that. But that doesn't solve my problem. I saw the movie. I loved the soundtrack. I want to buy the soundtrack. I can't.
The music industry is screwed.
Posted by Martin at 9:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Song give-away!
So you can become a song billionaire instead of a money billionaire? McDonalds one-ups Pepsi
Posted by Martin at 4:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Now here is a heavy handed, stupid idea that may get done
Everyone is struggling with how to pay for digital content. There are two basic ways. Either you can set up some systems that guarantee payment on a per use basis for each content type across all possible devices (and allow very deep penetration into people's useage patterns of said content), or you could impose some arbitrary tax on the devices and pathways to those devices used to consume digital media. The later is the approach favored by this guy: John Palfrey : Alternative Compensation Systems for Digital Media
The idea of taxing a thing that may or may not be used for content consumption and distributing those taxes among probably owners who may or may not have suffered any loss is not new. It was done with audio cassettes and video tapes in both the US and abroad. The reason these systems catch on is that they are enforceable. There is a physical thing that can be taxed. There is a system to collect taxes. There is enforcement.
Much cleaner than micropayment systems, cross platform payments, DRM and all that other stuff. I predict that and compulsary licensing is the solution we end up with.
Posted by Martin at 3:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Harvard pontificates on alternate compensation system for digital media
Very interesting. Harvard has summarized some thinking from a summit they had on creating legal alternative compensation system for digital media within current legal bounds.
Posted by Martin at 1:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 10, 2003
The Triumph of Jobs
Well Steve Jobs domination of the next big thing in big media is nearly complete. TIME Magazine: Coolest Inventions 2003, Apple Music Store Time has officially crowned him king. Man that guy can market.
Apple has one strategic product. the iPod. (stolen from Brad today in our partner meeting)
Posted by Martin at 9:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 4, 2003
OOps MIT service not so Kosher
I was all stoked when the MIT system for delivering music securely over the cable system seemed to be going. And Loudeye was helping to power it! But apparently not all ducks were in a row as MSNBC reports: MIT shuts down alternative file-swapping services That is one of the major problems with the labels. They give someone (in this case Loudeye), the rights to digitally distribute and relicense their music. Then when they get a customer, the label wades in and says, "no, now you have to deal with us". And makes the deal un-economic. Damn children is what they are.
Posted by Martin at 1:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 30, 2003
Mossberg reviews three digita music devices and services
The Mossberg Solution -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal. The iPod, Dell and and Samsung offering. Good overview. I don't like any of them because they don't have an FM tuner. I need that in a digital music device. And the ability to play lots of formats. High capacity is not so important. 10 gig is enough.
Posted by Martin at 6:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2003
RIAA repeats failures in history and ignores market
There is a guy who has been writing here:RIAA Sequentially Repeating Edison's Mistakes about all the ways that the RIAA is repeating the mistakes of history. The most recent article is in response to the RIAA crackdown on DJ mixes in Independent record stores. The recording industry is taking a typical "consolidate at the top" approach to retailers. For example, the new CD wholesale prices from Universal are only available to the largest distributors who buy 30 or more CDs. The "street compilations" of local DJs are a staple of many small independent record stores profit margins. The record companies would rather have a few very large distribution partners that they can whip into submission.
Here is a personal example of how far they have screwed up their distrubution channel. Saturday I went to a new movie from a director I really like. The soundtrack was AWESOME. I like the guy and want to support his work, so I went to the record store to buy the soundtrack. Tower was out. So was Barnes and Noble. Amazon said three week delivery. Kaaza said about 15 minutes.
ouch.
Posted by Martin at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 16, 2003
Canada gets into the music download business eh!
Always a follower, Canada is now here. NATIONAL POST And they matched the current $.99 per track industry pricing. But remember, this is Canadian! So buy your tracks and drugs across the boarder....
Posted by Martin at 8:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 15, 2003
The blowhard starts puffing about VOIP
Voxilla has an interview with: Internet "Bad Boy" Michael Robertson on the Future of Phones :: Voxilla.com :: A user's guide to the communications revolution
When I started Loudeye Technologies I was on a panel a couple times with Michael. A total blowhard who likes the spotlight over thinking deeply about a business. All hat and no trousers as they say in Texas.
I am interested in VOIP and how I can use it at home though. Look for more posts. I recently bought a lot on Queen Anne here in Seattle and hope to have a new house standing up in two years. It is an interesting exercise to try to pick systems for a house in two years. What do you do for phone? Connectivity? LAN? Security? Home monitoring?
Posted by Martin at 2:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 10, 2003
The RIAA should read more history
This professor at Wharton points out that the auto industry tried the "sue your customers" strategy 100 years ago to prevent them from buying "the upstart" Henry Ford's "unlicensed" cars. It didn't work then and it won't work now. Knowledge@Wharton -
Posted by Martin at 6:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 6, 2003
back on the hard stuff
My favorite web radio station is back to the hard stuff. The Alternative stream on : <a title="Radiostorm.com Home Page" href="http://www.radiostorm.com/">Radiostorm.com Home Page</a>
Posted by Martin at 8:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 25, 2003
RIAA continues hard ball tactics
<p>I would have thought the music industry was coming around to embracing digital distribution of their works. But no. Still head in the sand. <a title="RIAA Plans to Sue Music Swappers (TechNews.com)" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33442-2003Jun25.html">RIAA Plans to Sue Music Swappers (TechNews.com)</a>. There is no valid legal alternative on the windows platform to get excited about. Better check which song sharing program you are using and get a more protected one...</p>
Posted by Martin at 8:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 17, 2003
Internet audio players
<p>In the world of "play your internet on your stereo", Philips has taken that one step further and just integrated 802.11 and MP3 into a mini stereo system. Soon, every system will just have the connectivity built in so you won't need any of these intermediate gadget dongly things. <a title="Philips Consumer Electronics" href="http://www.consumer.philips.com/global/b2c/ce/catalog/subcategory.jhtml;jsessionid=HSKICDVFKFUVWCRQNE2RYVIKGBUCWHD0?groupId=AUDIO_GR&divId=0&catId=INTERNET_AUDIO_CA&subCatId=INTERNET_AUDIO_SYSTEMS_SU">Philips Consumer Electronics</a></p>
Posted by Martin at 8:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 15, 2003
WWF of video codecs!
<p>All the years at <a href="http://www.loudeye.com">Loudeye Technologies</a>, we were endlessly debating the merits of one video codec over another. Each kept developing. There are now an even larger crop of technologies. Here is a very detailed and well documentd round-up. <a title="Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource" href="http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/codecs-103-1.htm">Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource</a> Have fun!</p>
Posted by Martin at 8:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 27, 2003
My new new web radio station
Tune into this one and just chill. Great for latenight e-mail catch-up sessions. Or just hanging out. <a href="http://somafm.com/groovesalad.pls">SomaFM: Listener Supported, Commercial Free Internet Radio</a>
Posted by Martin at 6:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 25, 2003
Madona gets into net music
<p>Well it looks like one of digital music's most ardent opponents is caving. Madonna has just put her new single out as MP3. <a title="Madonna grooves with MP3 release | CNET News.com" href="http://news.com.com/2100-1025-993941.html">Madonna grooves with MP3 release | CNET News.com</a></p>
<p>It looks like she is actually doing a couple things right. She is selling an unDRM protected MP3 file. And letting it be sold in the subscription services like PressPlay, Rhapsody, et al. Of course it is also available free on teh Gnutella networks, but for convience sake on the fan site and on subscription services it is paid for. I believe people pay a small price for convenience. And getting it from a trusted source. Lets see how she does.<br />
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Posted by Martin at 9:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack